By NICK WINGFIELD
Electronic Arts Inc.'s chief operating officer, John Schappert, has left the videogames publisher to join Zynga Inc. as a senior executive, said people familiar with the matter.
In a filing with securities regulators Tuesday, EA of Redwood City, Calif., said Mr. Schappert resigned from EA on Monday and left the company that same day.
People familiar with the matter said Mr. Schappert has joined Zynga, the fast-growing social games startup in San Francisco that makes FarmVille, CityVille and other popular Facebook games.

Mr. Schappert is becoming chief operating officer of Zynga, according to a person familiar with the matter. A spokeswoman for Zynga declined to comment.
Mr. Schappert joined EA in June 2009 as chief operating officer, after serving as a corporate vice president at Microsoft Corp. managing portions of its videogame business. Prior to that, he was a longtime EA executive.